


What a Wonderful World

by keepitdreamin



Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Fluff, Food, M/M, Multi, Polyamory, alternate universe (maybe? i don't even know?)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-24
Updated: 2017-09-24
Packaged: 2019-01-04 18:46:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,150
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12174549
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/keepitdreamin/pseuds/keepitdreamin
Summary: Sam knows where they’re going 6 blocks away from the park, but he still acts surprised when they finally reach the festival space. After all, when your boyfriends want to surprise you with a nice picnic outing, why spoil their fun?





	What a Wonderful World

**Author's Note:**

> [Art by the wonderful Shilly! ](godshilla.deviantart.com%0A)
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> [And as always I'm on Tumblr!](www.keepitdreamin.com)
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> I hope you guys enjoy!!

Sam’s suspicions are immediately aroused when Bucky—notorious for never wanting to go anywhere if there was sleep still to be had—hustles them out of the house at 9:30 A.M. Sam would honestly prefer to go back to bed (it _is_ his birthday after all), but Steve plays along with Bucky, claiming that he wants to start working off the special double chocolate chip pancakes they’d made that morning. Sam rolls his eyes at that, but he lets himself be pulled along anyway because he’s in a good mood and he wants to see what they’re up to.

“Where are we going?” Sam asks when they’ve been walking for about ten minutes. They’re going in a circuitous, meandering path that _feels_ random, but Sam is _sure_ they designed so he’d maybe get a little lost and not ruin whatever they’d planned. All three of them can’t really walk side by side on the sidewalk without blocking anybody, so Steve and Bucky are taking turns walking with Sam, and he tugs on Steve’s hand when he doesn’t answer. “Come on, really. What’s up?”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Steve says with a straight face. “We’re just going for a nice walk, right Buck?”

Bucky turns a little so he can shoot them a smirk as he says, “Sometimes the destination is in the journey.”

“Oh fuck you,” Sam laughs. “Come on, if you don’t tell me, I’m going to have to start guessing.”

“Feel free,” Steve says and his straight face slips a little and he smirks sideways at Sam. “But since we’re not going anywhere in particular, it seems a little pointless.”

Sam shoves him so Steve, laughing all the way, stumbles off the sidewalk, and he catches up to walk beside Bucky. He pointedly ignores Steve, who’s still laughing fairly loudly just behind them and directs his guesses at Bucky. “The aquarium? The planetarium? Oooh there’s a new art exhibit at the museum….”

 

He figures it out six blocks away from the park, but they _still_ won’t tell him. He plays along, and as they get closer and closer to the park, at the point where it's _obvious_ they're going to the Spring Creek Festival, Sam continues wondering aloud, “Where oh where could you possibly be taking me? I wonder what on earth my big birthday surprise could be!” Okay, so he's being a little sarcastic, but if they'd really wanted it to be a surprise, they should've blindfolded him from the beginning.

He keeps that up (to the increased exasperation of his boyfriends) till they’re literally standing in the entrance. Steve pulls out his wallet and puts in their donation (Sam sees a 10 on the outside of the folded bills but he catches a glimpse of a 100 underneath that and grins to himself), and Bucky is getting a stamp on his hand when Sam stops and puts on his best _‘totally shocked and didn’t even think of it”_ face and says, “Oh my god, we’re going to the festival??? I had no idea. _No idea_.” The woman giving out the stamps covers her snicker behind her hand, and Bucky and Steve roll their eyes at him before tugging him along into the actual park.

 

As they start up the steep hill to the picnic and seating areas, Bucky pauses and gazes forlornly to the picnic tables in the clearing near the stage. “What, we couldn’t have spent some more and gotten a table down there?”

Sam just laughs back at him. “No, the climb is half the fun!” Bucky grumbles something under his breath but when Sam looks back, he just rolls his eyes and smirks.

Sam raises an eyebrow, and in response Bucky wrinkles his nose, and they probably would have continued like that till they were sticking out their tongues and blowing raspberries like _children_ if it weren’t for Steve. “Come on guys,” Steve calls from ahead of them, oblivious to their childish antics. “We’re almost to our spots!”

Sam _does_ stick out his tongue at Bucky (he’s allowed to be a little childish on his birthday okay), and then hurries to follow Steve. “Wait,” Sam says after they catch back up with him, “we don’t have any picnic stuff though?”

“Yeah, we do,” Steve says with a grin back at him before waving at someone in the grove. Sam follows where he’s looking and sees Natasha sitting cross legged precisely in the center of a perfectly placed picnic blanket, two baskets beside her. She raises her hand in return, and Steve leads them through the trees and picnics to her.

When they get closer, Natasha unfolds and stands gracefully. “Thanks again Natasha,” Steve says as they stop at the picnic.

“No problem.” Natasha grins and then steps forward and presses a kiss to Sam’s cheek. “Happy birthday,” she says simply, and with a nod to Steve and Bucky, she leaves.

“Thank you!” he calls after her as she starts climbing away. A moment later he turns to Steve and asks, “Wait should we have invited her to stay?”

Steve, from where he’s kneeling at the edge of the blanket sorting through the bags, sits back on his heels and gives him a _look_ . “Did you _want_ Natasha to be around for your romantic birthday picnic?”

Sam laughs as he finally sits on the blanket. “No, but I don’t know, isn’t it the polite thing to ask anyway?”

“It doesn’t matter,” Bucky interjects, sprawling across the blanket so he can reach to steal a grape from the bag Steve had just unearthed. “She has a date anyway.” Sam nudges his hip with his foot and Bucky grins up at him and tosses him a few grapes.

Steve make an exasperated noise and ruffles Bucky’s hair. “Hey, move over. We need space for the food.”

Bucky stretches languidly and lounges for another moment before slowly moving to Sam’s other side. It reminds Sam of the way cats move when you shoo them, like it was _entirely_ their own idea, and it’s only a coincidence that it happened right after you told them to move. Sam chuckles and reaches over to ruffle Bucky’s hair too. Bucky scowls up at him, and Steve asks, “Is she dating again? I thought she’d decided after that whole Beijing disaster that she was done with the whole business.”

Bucky shrugs and sits up fully so he can rest his chin on Sam’s shoulder, watching as Steve finishes unpacking the picnic. “I only know what she told me which was, and I quote, ‘Sure I’ll hold the space for you. I have a date there anyway. Now get the fuck out of my office.’”

Sam chuckles and shakes his head. “Good ol’ Natasha. Now _please_ tell me you thought to pack something alcoholic?” Steve pulls out two bottles of wine with a grin, and Sam laughs. “Great! Let’s get this party started!”

 

 

They snack on the fairly light fare of crackers and fruit and chat about nothing really while they watch the rest of the field start filling up. At one point Steve and Bucky get in a heated disagreement about the new X-Files series (the nerds) and Sam ignores them in favor of watching the dancers and musicians preparing near the stage.

“Well?” Bucky asks, and Sam jolts, realizing both of his boyfriends are looking at him expectantly. Apparently, he’s being called to settle whatever the dispute had been about.

He sips his wine and takes a second to consider his options, considering that he wasn’t paying attention and that he has a limited knowledge of the X-Files in the first place. Finally, with Steve and Bucky looking on impatiently, he lowers his glass and says, “I’d definitely fuck an alien.”

There’s a beat of silence, and then Steve groans and falls back on the blanket, throwing an arm over his face in despair. “Heathens, you’re both godless heathens,” he says in the air of someone who’s totally given up on life.

Bucky cackles into his wine, and Sam shrugs. “Look an alien shows up, says they want to have sex with you, and you’re gonna what? Turn that down? That’s a once in a lifetime experience! Even if it’s terrible, you get to say, ‘I fucked an alien.’ And you’re saying you _wouldn’t_ do that?”

Steve groans again and shakes his head viciously. “ _Yes_. I am saying that I wouldn’t just fuck any alien that happened to come down and see me!”

Sam shakes his head sadly. “David Duchovny is rolling in his grave right now.”

Steve pushes himself back up onto his elbows, eyeing Sam skeptically. “David Duchovny isn’t dead.”

“He would be if he heard this nonsense about not fucking aliens.”

Bucky leans over and smirks at Steve. “You hear that? You’re killing David Duchovny, Steve. Now stop being a prude and admit you’d fuck an alien, just like the rest of us mortals.”

“I _wouldn’t_ ,” Steve insists to which Sam and Bucky roll their eyes at each other.

“Sure, Steve.”

“Keep telling yourself that, Steve.”

“You can stay at home drinking whole milk and reading the bible while we go out and fuck hot aliens.”

“Yeah, you can iron your jeans and retweet the pope or whatever it is _you_ people do.”

“Why are you making me sound like a, a young Republican or something?” Steve laughs. “I fucked _both_ of you last night.”

“But you wouldn’t have if we were aliens.” Bucky shakes his head. “You wouldn’t have if we were aliens.”

Sam tuts and pours himself another glass of wine as Steve runs a hand down his face and takes deep calming breaths. Sam graciously refills Steve’s glass too even though it’s his birthday, and he shouldn’t have to lift a finger. Steve at least drops his hand, smiles appreciatively, and passes Sam a fresh cookie, so a win all around.

 

By the time the performance starts, they’ve gone through most of the food and are starting on the second bottle of wine. Sam stretches a little more against Steve so he can see the stage better between the trees. Steve leans back on his elbow and tugs Sam over so he can rest more comfortably against Steve’s chest and have a better view. Sam stretches a bit in this new position, and Bucky pulls his legs into his lap and rests his hand over Sam’s ankles, absently rubbing circles on his exposed skin with his thumb. Sam settles back comfortably, with his two loves of his life on either side and good wine in his hand, and prepares to watch the dancing.

Bucky doesn’t really have a great view, but when Sam glances over, he’s not even watching, just sitting and listening to the music with his eyes closed. A breeze blows through the grove, ruffling Bucky’s hair and a then a leaf drops from the trees and falls on his head, and Bucky jolts, startled. Sam snorts and Bucky opens his eyes and sends a good-natured glare at him. Sam smiles and then looks back at the stage as the music swells.

The next time Sam looks over, Bucky’s gazing over at both of them with a soft, happy smile. Another light breeze ruffles his hair as the music swells around them and Sam doesn’t think twice to sit up a little and press a kiss to Bucky’s lips. Bucky makes a happy surprised noise and kisses back fervently, soft and warm and tasting like strawberries and wine.

Steve sits to wrap an arm around Sam’s chest and hook his chin over his shoulder. His chuckle reverberates through Sam’s chest, and he murmurs low in Sam’s ear, “You’re missing the performance.”

Sam breaks the kiss with a laugh and then twists to kiss Steve, who makes a pleased hum against Sam’s lips. Bucky laughs too and swipes Sam’s wine glass from his hands.

  

After the performance is over, Sam holds Bucky’s hand as they climb out of the park while Steve takes the bags and leads the way. “Why am I always the pack mule?” Steve asks with an exaggerated groan as he readjusts the bags on his shoulders.

Sam and Bucky share a sideways look and then say simultaneously, “Because we don’t want to.” Steve huffs as he turns and heads down the hill. Sam and Bucky snicker as they follow him down.

Halfway down while they’re stopped in the line of people leaving, Sam glances over at Bucky, and then with a laugh, he picks some twigs and small leaves out of Bucky’s hair. Bucky scowls, and Sam brushes his hair back so he can kiss his temple before settling his baseball cap back on his head. Steve looks back with a happy smile at the two of them and Sam’s in love and he’s loved, and it’s sort of the best birthday ever.

**Author's Note:**

> I went to the Stern Grove festival to see the San Francisco ballet this summer which is what inspired this. I climbed up an almost 90 degree incline of dirt, fell on my butt once, almost slipped down the hill twice, had a branch fall down two inches away from me, and could only see the stage through a gap in the pine branches. It was _a lot_ of fun. 
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> The Stern Grove festival actually ends in August but shhhhh this is fiction. Anyway I wasn’t too specific about the location and I made up a festival name so you can picture it set anywhere.


End file.
